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Bently: Capture Quest (dec. 10)

#1

The morning sun dawned on Zhenyi City, marking the beginning of a new chapter. A new day. If fate would have it, a new era. After all, this was Bently's first time out, and he was here to make the most of it. The metropolis of Zhenyi City sprawled itself out over the Heaven Kua, yielding a richness in culture to all who found themselves drawn to it. But there was one thing that only the wilderness could offer, and that was the journey that waited.

On the outskirts of Zhenyi City, there was a quietness. There was still beauty, although it operated in negative space. Instead of tall buildings stacked with knowledge and art, here there was the field. Ruins of stone, preserved as monuments to a distant past, stood and let breathe. But you never did know what lurked in the corners. The optimist can never see a grim reality until it's too late.

Bently, of course, was just here to take a first step. He would thrust himself into the vortex of possibility, and what came out, who knew but fate. Fate, and the Phantump that poked its head out from behind a wall and cast its eyes on the unsuspecting traveler.

It begins, Bently. The Phantump spies on you, and you don't know, but by your side, your Gastly feels the eyes. Your partner turns, and you know not why. Phantump jumps! Congrats, trainer: you're in the wild, now.

Bently almost cried as he saw the Phantump hop into a shadow that scrawled along the ground, "Oh no, Nicolas! Watch out!"

But it was too late and Phantump emerged from its shadow and grabbed Nicolas. He has never encountered anything like this before! Though he remembered something about burning in one his old classes from childhood. In a split second, he commanded Nicolas, "Try to shake the Phantump off with your Will-O-Wisp!"

The struggling Gastly emitted bright blue blames that forced the attacking phantom off. It backed away, with a few scratch marks on itself. The Phantump was noticeably burnt. Nicolas looked scared, and so did Benton. He was a little nervous about what to do next.

"Use..." he stuttered a little. The last time he has a serious battle was in school. He would always panic in the face of an adversary. But this time it was going to be different! A drop of sweat rolled down Benton's face. He placed his feet firmly on the ground; he could tell that Nicolas was ready for a fight.

He sighed and commanded, "use Shadow Ball!"

Nicolas sighed and generated a large, purplish-black ball of energy the size of itself, and shot it at the Phantump. It fell to the ground. Was it unconscious?

There was no one else around. "Where did it come from," he thought. The ruins were starting to fade and he could see the soft fields out in the distance and wondered if the other Pokemon further outside would be even worse than this one.

Spooky scary. Nicolas the Gastly absorbed the hit, a resounding start to things. This did not matter, though. The things that happen rarely do. It's all in the response, and in this, Bently chose to move forward. His Gastly's Will-o-Wisp scared off the Phantump, sending it into a modest retreat; the attack afflicted Phantump with a burn, regardless. Bently wisely followed up with an attack, and it dealt respectable damage. This Phantump really wasn't strong. This Phantump seemed to know this.

The Phantump vanished. For a moment, it was unclear where it had gone, and doubt prevailed as to whether it would come back. But then, Phantump was spotted in a far corner; then, suddenly, a few feet beside Bently. It ghosted, from here to there and generally everywhere. This was Phantump's Phantom Force attack! A fearsome attack that allowed the Pokemon to vanish and strike at it desired. Trainer, you aren't ready. You can't be ready.

You could only have planned ahead, and though Phantump's attack landed, it wasn't with full force. That was the burn, again. Nicolas recoiled, having taken the attack. In this opportunity, Phantump disappeared again. This was not entirely to its benefit; the burn continued to eat away at its strength.

But now, as Phantump stepped beyond the physical and only tip-toed among the visible, the next move made itself hard to glimpse as well. In the empty space of the ruins, there were Bently and Nicolas at its center, and the shadows of a Phantump that were there were moment and gone the next. It wasn't a strong Pokemon. It knew this. But hell, it was going to make you work for it.

Noting the Phantumps demonstrated weakness, he remebered that phantom force was a particularly strong attack to begin with and he knew his Gastly would not appreciate taking a full-on hit. In almost a panic, he called out, "Nicolas, be careful! He doesn't seem that strong, but you could still get hurt!"

Nicolas didn't immediately respond; he was intent on figuring out where that little ghost will strike next. But where could it be hiding?

Bently quickly ran up to Nicolas and put a kasib berry in his mouth to hold in the event of an attack. His feet dragged against the dusty cobble road. The ruins he was in was surrounded by grass and a partially buried road. There were large, degraded concrete pillars around. The air tasted burnt from the charred wood from Nicolas's will-o-wisp, so the phantump had to be close.

Slightly more relieved that the threat of the phantump is now under control, he heaved a sigh a few meters from Nicolas, who was still vigilantly looking around for the phantump's shadow. "Nicolas, once it comes back from the shadows, use another shadow ball on it. I want to try and capture it!"

Nicolas turned to look at Benton and screeched in agreement. Just as it was about to return Benton saw a shadow on the ground deftly approach Nicolas. "Behind you!"

Nicolas turned behind and from the shadow came the burned Phantump who gave Nicolas a strong uppercut. Nicolas quickly ate his berry as it was attacked. "Try to fly above it!"

Nicolas managed to float a little higher than the phantump's phantom force could reach its full impact. "Now, use shadow ball!"

Nicolas generated another huge purplish-black and hurled it at young ghost, which caused it to hit the ground with a thud.

"All, right;" Bently was incredibly excited that this was his first opportunity to catch something since he was in boarding school! He threw his Nest Ball at the weakened phantump on the ground and it dematerialized into the ball...

The beginning drew to an end. This was, of course, only the beginning. Bently was out to beat the world, but it started with the smallest of steps. But the first step must always be acknowledged, because this is where progress begins. Mobilization matters.

Bently made a decision. He fed a Kasib Berry to his Gastly -- the berry would protect a Pokemon against Ghost-type attacks, such as Phantump's Shadow Force. This was a defensive move, one that would take a hit so as to strike back with precise timing. And it was well-measured, because with the effects of the Kasib Berry and the pre-existing Burn condition, Nicolas was in strong position to absorb an attack.

Phantump striked from Nicolas' blind spot, but to little effect. Nicolas turned and returned fire with a Shadow Ball, striking at close range and forcing the ghostie back. The trap had been sprung; Bently leaped forward. (Forward, always.) He threw his first Nest Ball at the Pokemon, and this was no ordinary toss, because it was the first. With that, it carried hope and expectations and even a certain faith in what comes. Bently was thrusting himself into the future, too, and who could say if the wilderness would reject him.

Today wasn't that day, though. Because this was only the first step, and the first step is always the easiest to make, if you can just bring yourself to make it. And Bently's footing was sure. The Phantump was swallowed within the Nest Ball, and gave three shakes before sealing itself. The capture was a success!

The Onmyo region was one of multitudes. Still already, more eyes watched Bently, and not all of them were friendly. Up ahead, a path diverged into a fork. One led into a cave that glimmered with mischief; another led to a grove of flowers where not all were the same. But that was the future, the next step to be taken. Those steps mattered as well, but less in this moment. This is Bently's moment: the moment where it all begins.

Before taking his next step, he summoned his injured Phantump from his nest ball. It materialized on the ground, barely able to sit up on the dusty path. The burn made him smell of cinder. Bently reached in his bag for a Lum berry, to which the ailing phantump gleefully ate. Benty smiled as the smell wafted away. The phantump tried to smile, but it was noticeably exhausted. He reached in his bag and fished out a Sitrus berry and fed it to the Phantump, to which it gleefully ate. It seemed to restore some energy immediately!

In a few moments, it had enough energy to float and circle around Bently, who giggled along with his new ghostly friend. He looked at the Phantump who had a curious expression on its face.

"I guess I'll call you, Olivia!"

The phantump seemed to like that it was given the nickname.

Bently sighed and looked at the road ahead. Olivia looked out in curiosity as well. Bently commanded Olivia back into her Pokeball, and subsequently dematerialized.

He wondered at this time the merits of choosing either path. He looked ahead to the field of flowers ahead and could see them rippling in the winds. He knew there couldn't possibly that much interesting besides a boring fairy like Flabebe or Cutiefly. He looked over and saw the cave holed up under a small break in the grassland. He wondered what sort of mysterious pokemon would be in there and decided to head in that direction.

((Hiya Julio! I hope you don't mind if I pick up this quest and help you get to the end of it! I'm not going to add levels as we go like Nitro did, because it takes too much calculation, especially when the pokemon is injured. I'll total the gained levels at the end.))#4

There was indeed a breeze blowing across the nearby field as Bently headed towards the small cave entrance. So much so, in fact, that Nicolas could have tilted sideways in order to continue flying straight! Being heavier than gas, Bently had a little bit less trouble. Still, the breeze gusted so hard that the flowers in the field down the other fork of the path were lifted up. First came a flurry of petals, and then an entire plant seemed to drift accross on the breeze. A tiny, light little plant- or, rather, a pokemon!

Bently had been entirely correct when he assumed the field of flowers would have a flabebe, and one now drifted across, riding a small pink flower. The wind actually seemed a little abonormally strong now, and in fact, the flabebe was waving its arms around madly, which seemed to stir up the wind even more!

Flabebe used Fairy Wind!

A gust of wind that had an almost tangible force to it seemed to whisk across into the ghost pokemon- but unsurprisingly, it wasn't terribly effective. Throwing what is basically sparkly wind-force at something that is practically gas didn't do much harm at all.

Nicolas took 1 damage!

The flabebe seemed to want to fight, but the wind was carrying it further and further away already- there could be time for one good hit or one good throw if Bently wanted to do anything about it. Otherwise, the trainer and his ghastly could move on forwards, ignoring the fairy flower pokemon and beginning to travel down some of the rocky entranceway towards the cave.

Bently saw the little flower fairy and chucked at its challenge. Bently turned to Nicolas and wondered if he should fight. Bently thought a powerful Sludge Wave would do it in and decided to let it fly over gently with the wind. It reminded him of good times, but Bently was more curious about what the cave might hold.

As he approached the cave entrance there was a dank odor wafting from the cave. He sighed, not really liking the smell, but his curiosity drove him to continue onwards in the cave. He stumbled a little on the rocky pathway. There some plants sticking out between; the whole place seemed undisturbed. Once he hit the shadows the rocks became moist and slippery. He wondered if there was a lake or river; he couldn't really hear any water moving aside from a drip coming a ways down.

It was a long narrow cavern that seemed to head down at almost a thirty degree angle. The cave was, logically, dark. So he turned to Nicolas who was always right beside him and asked him to use a sustaining Will-o-Wisp to make some sort of light. Nicolas responded, he expanded, and came a ghostly blue flame circling around its body. The blue flame gave Bently just enough light to see ahead.

After about another then minutes of walking, the incline and the winding the long tube eased and he heard some water running. He followed the tunnel as the sound grew less faint, there he saw a long, intra-cave river flowing gently on the dirt. The ground was more soggy where he was and was a little worried about slipping. He saw a boulder off in the distances and sat on it to rest for a few minutes.

Okay! Hi Julio! While I love your creativity in describing your surroundings, we are going to have a real difficult time running this game if you’re the one doing all the describing- think of it like a dungeons and dragons game, if you’ve ever played them; DM: You’ve got two doors ahead, one looks green and one looks pinkPlayer: I choose the green doorDM: Great, so behind the gre—Player: -- so behind the green door is a wonderful garden, and I follow the path in the garden until I come to a stream, and it’s a lovely stream, and nothing has attacked me so far, so I sit down and have a picnic.DM: Okay firstly no, it leads to a room filled with glowing green crystals, secondly no, theres no path- you’re at a console, and thirdly no, theres someone already in there and they turn towards you holding a crowbar.

Can you see how the post you’ve just made is similar to the dysfunctional game scenario outlined above? I’m all for you taking the initiative, but your role is reactive- describe your own character, how they perceive the world, what they do and think and choose- but don’t rush off ahead and create a whole scenario and setting and story, cos that’s supposed to be my role!But in any case, you’ve put your character down at the bottom of a foul smelling cave, so I figure you might have accidentally punished them enough so far. Good luck!

---------------

Bently had chucked something at the flabebe- and technically, chucking anything at a flabebe would probably cause it to bounce away even faster than usual! He hadn’t had his pokemon attack it at all, and therefore the flowery fairy pokemon drifted angrily away.

The cave entryway did smell different to the outside, apparently, and Bently merely sighed at the odor. He was too curious to stop himself, and had continued down into the entrance. The pathway was almost nonexistent, and hardly any plants grew in the cave- less and less as he went down away from the light! Similarly, although the rocks may have been wet and muddy, they weren’t terribly slippery in the darkness, because most algae requires light to grow.

As Bently travelled down a long narrow cavern which headed down into the earth, he got his helpful ghastly to create a light. The will-o-wisp glowed an eerie purple, but did manage to shine far enough forwards that Bently didn’t have to feel his way around.

After he had walked quite a distance into the cave, Bently apparently perceived a cave river, then sat down on a boulder to rest. He had merely been walking- downhill, in fact. Why did he need to rest? Bently’s pulse was going faster than it should have been, and his breathing was a little too fast. A headache began to niggle at the back of his mind, whining away painfully. By this point he was quite a long way underground, and had been breathing in the odor of the cave for quite some time. Now, what causes a bad smell in a cave? Rot. Rot means metabolizing things are using up oxygen, and giving out CO2.What narrow, unbranched, caves which tilt a long way down underground DON’T typically have, is great airflow.Bently felt a flicker at the edge of his vision, and the shapes in the darkness began to wriggle and crawl slightly, making a flurry of stars like they might do when you’re very tired, or about to faint. A bout of intense nausea hit him and the world spun. This was bad. Very bad.Usually, a naked flame might have warned of the CO2 levels elevating- but Bently probably didn’t know about that sort of a test since he spent most of his time outdoors in the sunnier parts of the kua- and the light of his ghastly didn’t count as an open flame. In fact, Nicholas was having no trouble at all, being basically gas himself and not needing to breathe unlike his master.

The glitter of a Carbink facet shone briefly, just at the edge of the will-o-wisp light. It was watching them. It almost never had visitors… probably for good reason.